


Metaphors and Beer Bottles

by Abyssinia



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-25
Updated: 2007-03-25
Packaged: 2017-10-06 05:19:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abyssinia/pseuds/Abyssinia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"Do you ever think our lives are some big cosmic joke?" Daniel asks. He's sitting on Sam's floor, knees bent and back propped against her sofa, and he rolls his head back against the cushions to look at her when he asks the question.</i></p><p>After "Gemini" and "Prometheus Unbound," Sam and Daniel wonder how their lives got to be so weird.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Metaphors and Beer Bottles

"Do you ever think our lives are some big cosmic joke?" Daniel asks. He's sitting on Sam's floor, knees bent and back propped against her sofa, and he rolls his head back against the cushions to look at her when he asks the question. A half-empty bottle of whatever he brought dangles dangerously between his fingers, but Sam thinks moving to grab it and rescue her carpet would take way too much effort.

Sam glances at the empty bottles on her coffee table, automatically counting up to nine, and thinks maybe they're drunk enough for this conversation. "What do you mean?" she asks, carefully enunciating the words because her tongue feels awkward in her mouth. She isn't drunk enough to not be hyper-aware of the alcohol's effects on her system.

"I mean, do you ever just look at everything we do and wonder if the universe is laughing at us?" Daniel asks, squinting up at her. She thinks he's forgotten that his glasses are on top of his head. "I got abducted by a space pirate who couldn't seem to decide whether she wanted to beat me up or have sex with me. Things like that happen in movies, not in real life."

"Yeah," Sam laughs. "You know, General O'Neill is never going to let you live down being beaten up by a girl."

"I'd like to see him try his hand against Ishta," Daniel retorts, tipping up the bottle and miraculously managing to drain it into his mouth and not all over his shirt. "And, you…"

"What about me?" Sam asks.

"Well, there's a mechanical duplicate of you out there somewhere who apparently wants to take over the universe," Daniel states, not quite looking at her face this time.

She thinks this should sting – actually feels herself stiffening inside before the words sink in – because it's too soon and she hasn't yet, probably never will, forgiven herself for the monster she unleashed. Daniel was on his way to Atlantis by the time she returned to SGC where Teal'c and General O'Neill failed to absolve her guilt. They've barely seen each other since he returned yesterday and until now, she wasn't even sure Daniel knew all that happened with her Replicator.

"Though, I suppose we've all had robot duplicates before," Daniel muses, frowning at the empty bottle in his hands. "So it's just the universe domination part that's new." And, it doesn't sting because this is Daniel and if anyone could understand it's him, Sam realizes. She should have known this was coming the second he arrived on her doorstep with two six packs under his arms.

"Sam?" She looks down and sees that Daniel is frowning up at her a little, his eyebrows inching towards each other on his forehead, and realizes she hasn't said anything, hasn't told him that what he said is okay.

Sam lets her right hand fall so her fingers brush against the back of Daniel's head. Pete's hair is fine and thinning a little at the top, but Daniel's is thick and coarse and he closes his eyes as her fingers card through it. "Look at you," she tells him. "You've died and come back enough times to start your own religion. And Teal'c is leading a rebellion against an entire pantheon."

"I'd better be careful around him if I ever start that religion then, huh?" he asks, smiling a little. "I keep wondering how my life got to be so weird, but then I remember my grandfather got abducted by aliens from a Mayan pyramid. It must run in the family."

"I started the Tok'ra symbiote trend in the Carter clan," Sam reminds him. "And, as everyone loves to point out, I blew up a sun."

"I married someone from another planet."

"My body got taken over by a computer."

"Just one computer? Try seventeen different personalities. All at once."

"Oh yeah? Well Thor enlisted me to fight the Replicators because he wanted a stupid idea," Sam retorts, realizing she's starting to laugh.

"At least you never thought you were telekinetic." Daniel's smile is growing wider and when he opens his eyes to look at her she only starts laughing harder, pulling him along with her. She sends a mental thank you to the alcohol coursing hot through her veins, because it's been a long time since they've laughed like this.

By the time they quiet Sam has fallen onto her side on the couch and Daniel's arms are curled around his ribs like he'll split open if he doesn't hold tight. "Daniel?" she asks, catching her breath among residual giggles. "Why are we laughing?"

"Because sometimes, it's all we can do," Daniel says, his voice becoming serious. "C'mon, Sam, you have to admit our lives are really weird."

"I guess. But it doesn't stop them from being real," Sam tells him, feeling herself sobering up. "She's still out there, Daniel. And she's me – she knows what I know, she's created from my personality. Does that mean I…"

"Sam," Daniel says gently, interrupting her. "Do you remember when Shifu came to SGC? When he taught me by giving me a dream?"

"Yeah," Sam says, sitting up. "You never told us much about it."

"I blew up Moscow," Daniel tells her, scooting forward to her coffee table, keeping his back to her. "Shifu gave me some of the Goa'uld knowledge he carries and I used it to build defensive satellites around Earth. I was so sure I was right, so sure I knew what had to be done, and no one else did, that I took control of them." Daniel arranges the empty bottles as he talks, carefully assembling six of them into a triangle. "And I blew up Moscow. I took over the world."

"Wow," Sam says. "So you and I, we're both a little dangerous."

"Are you really surprised?" Daniel asks. "We're both intelligent and ambitious and are very sure we're right in whatever we do." He takes three more bottles and carefully balances them on top of the six, creating a smaller triangle. "Oma once told me that the only thing in the universe we can control is whether we are good or evil. And there's one big difference between you and me and our evil doubles. One thing that makes that control easier."

"What is it?" Sam asks, sliding off the couch to sit next to him on the floor.

"In my dream, the first thing I did was drive you all away." He spins the last empty beer bottle – the one he just finished – in his hands. "You, Teal'c, Jack, everyone – you tried to stop me, but I was so sure I was doing the right thing that I got rid of you all," Daniel explains. "And your Replicator – she's alone. She doesn't have Jack or Teal'c or me or your dad or Pete or anyone." With hands that are much steadier than they should be, Daniel carefully balances the bottle at the very top, the capstone to an unusual pyramid. "But you'll always have us watching out for you, supporting you, keeping you good."

"You really think that makes any difference?" Sam asks.

Daniel finally turns to look at her. "Sam, it makes all the difference."


End file.
